My guide, 16 tips, for delegates to Labour Conference, written, with help, for #lab19. See below/overleaf.
1. Get your card votes at Regional Briefings, the location of these is advertised in the Delegates Guide.
2. Get your voting papers inc. the priorities ballot paper, these will be issued somewhere else
3. Be there for conference start as the CAC report will be voted on by Card Vote
4. If not all delegates have their card vote because Region mucked up, move a point of order before the vote on the CAC report, in 2018, they reopened the ballot office and extended the voting time last year because a large number of London Delegates did not have their cards
5. You will know what the Unions are going to prioritise, don’t vote for the same subjects, you have 10 options, these will be voting for subject groups
6. Remember your mandates, people and subject matter and priority ballot
7. Take a photo of the ballot papers so you can prove you did what was needed.
8. If absent, leave the card vote books on the floor with another delegate.
9. Most Votes will be at the end of the session or day.
10. There will be CAC reports each morning by email. These need to be read so leave time for this.
11. Read the CLPD Yellow Pages, it’s full of good advice
12. Composite meetings decide the mover & seconder, rule changes have no seconder
13. If you want to speak from the floor, wear something distinctive but not stupidly so. Red is no good at LP conference. You may only speak once per session now. This cannot be guaranteed. but you might want to wait for specific debates.
14. Take some water, any refreshments you need and any medicine you need. Queues in the Conference Centre during breaks will be long. This also applies to composite meetings.
15. Remember to take enough photos
16. Dress nice for leader’s speech (last day)
Thanks to those who helped me with this!
On card votes/tip no 1. Your card vote book has two votes per voting ordinal, a yes and a no, these are also colour coded and each have a barcode. The bar code is associated by computer with an identity and thus with a vote weighting. You will be handed out the card books at a delegate briefing probably on Saturday a.m. The votes are then collected and counted by a second computer. You at no point know what your vote weighting is. Line item votes are not published so members cannot check that mandates have been observed. In 2018, half our delegation were not issued with card books in time for the CAC report; and it was impossible to get into the badge office or the CAC office. If this happens to you move a point of order, before or during the CAC report. It may be too late once they move to the vote.